


Memories

by lonely_night



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M, I realised Jack never properly told either of them about the rest of Torchwood, M/M, Sad, Warning: lots of crying, i should be asleep, which sucks so I thought I should
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 06:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8390386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonely_night/pseuds/lonely_night
Summary: Jack explains to Rex why he is in charge. Basically, memories.Jack and Gwen tell Esther and Rex about Tosh, Owen and Ianto.





	

"And who put you in charge!" Shouted Rex  
They were having another argument and, quite frankly, Esther was really sick of it.  
"Excuse me, and who put you in charge?" Screamed Gwen, angrily  
"The CIA that's who!" Bellowed Rex, just as loudly,  
"Well I'm sorry but that's not how we do things around here," responded Jack, "if you want to work for Torchwood you work for Torchwood. If you want to work for the CIA then you can leave."  
Rex glared at him, "can I remind you that right now, Torchwood is working for the CIA?"  
"Oh yeah? And whose fault is that?" Replied Gwen angrily.  
"I am in charge here and that's final," said Jack, bluntly  
"I don't think so!" Responded Rex, "you don't even know America!"  
"And you don't know what we're dealing with here, whereas myself and Gwen do, and we've dealt with aliens many times before."  
Rex stared at both of them, "I work for the CIA!"  
Gwen and Jack both glared at Rex who returned their strong looks with an equally smouldering one of his own.  
Esther had had enough.  
"We're not getting anywhere here. Rex, you've made your point, Gwen, Jack, you've each made your points-"  
She was cut off my Rex, not for the first time that day, "pretty poor points they gave though!"  
Jack smiled. This threw everyone off balance, even Gwen, who was used to Jack's tactics and mood-changes.  
"Why don't I explain to you why I am in charge here?"  
"Go ahead," replied Rex.  
Jack leaned back in his chair.  
"One day, I was in the Torchwood Hub (long story about how I got there), and I thought, y'know what, I could do with someone else here with me. Someone else with brains as sharp as knives.  
So I went out looking, searched a couple of the well-known agencies that might have someone I was looking for. I went to U.N.I.T. first. Looked through the Prison cells. There had been a story going round that went like this: there was a secret device that a gang wanted to get hold of. It was dangerous, they knew that much. The gang was holding someone hostage in order to blackmail a woman into building the device. This woman was extremely clever. She ransacked document after document and finally found the instructions to build the device.  
Once she had the materials she needed, she started to build the device. The instructions were insanely complex. But, even so, she dedicated every free second of her life to building the device. Thing is, she knew the hostage. The hostage was her mother. And she wanted her mother back.  
Finally, after weeks of work, she build the device. It worked.   
The thing is, the instructions weren't correct. They were purposely wrong. But the device worked. Why was this? Because the woman had corrected the mistakes without even questioning it. She'd done it as she'd gone along.   
But anyway, she handed the device in to the gang that were holding her mother hostage. But the gang had lied. They didn't give her her mother. They let her see her. And, as they ran towards each other, they turned on the device. The most excruciating pain filled both of their ears, the highest, sharpest noise imaginable rang from the device. That was how U.N.I.T. found them.   
They took the woman away from her mother and the woman in prison. In U.N.I.T. prison. Which meant inedible food, constant security cameras, no windows, plain blank walls, and never being let out of the cell. It's said that U.N.I.T. do not even care about their prisoners. They might glance up at the cameras one day and find them dead. Not a big deal to them.  
Somehow, the woman survived for two months.  
And then I paid her a visit.  
She was a bright spark. Brilliant brains. I offered her a job in Torchwood. She accepted.   
I had landed my first worker in Torchwood.  
Her name was Toshiko.   
Toshiko Sato."

Gwen smiled fondly at the memories the name brought.  
And then she sniffed sadly.

"Owen Harper was next.  
Or, as he always stressed, 'Dr. Owen Harper, thank you very much.'  
I met Owen in a hospital. What you might expect for a doctor really.  
I didn't really mean to pick him out to be honest. What attracted me was an alien species.   
Once Toshiko and myself had tracked down the alien, we realised where it was.   
You see, Owen had a girlfriend, fiancé even, (she was a doctor too), and she had cancer. A brain tumour. Or was it?  
In truth, it was an alien tumour. Attached to her brain.  
The only thing I could do was to get it off her. Which meant killing her.  
I did what I had to do.  
Owen didn't except that of course when he realised.  
I asked him why he became a doctor. I'll always remember his words: "I thought that if I saved lives, mine might be worth while. Once you've saved one though, there's more and more people wanting to be saved, clawing at you. Thousands. I try and save as many as I can. But it's never enough."  
Eventually, Owen accepted a job at Torchwood too.

Somewhere along the way, we acquired a woman of the name 'Suzie Castello'. Suzie was a bit different."

Gwen's face darkened like a cloud had passed over her face. "Yes... Suzie..." she murmured.

"More on Suzie later," Jack said, "Next came a man who, the first time I ever met him, introduced himself as 'Jones, Ianto Jones," Jack's voice cracked slightly on Ianto's name and a tear slipped silently down his cheek, "to cut a very long story short, he was from Torchwood 1 in London and when Canary Wharf was invaded (that was one big invasion by the way, courtesy of the Daleks, the Cybermen, and The Doctor and his companion at the time, the fantastic Rose Tyler), he had nowhere else to go so he wanted a job in Torchwood 3, he couldn't live a normal life anymore. So eventually, I accepted his offer and we gained a loyal Perodactyl and the best coffee maker ever, who, later on, became an amazing field agent.

A little later, P.C. Gwen Cooper here joined the team."

Gwen smiled.  
Esther didn't say anything, she just listened intently to Jack, even Rex had finally shut up and was transfixed and hanging onto his every word.

"Shortly after Gwen arrived, we had been experiencing lots of deaths that were more or less the same. We made a link eventually, and I realised at the same time as Gwen that our own Suzie Castello was the murderer. Suzie was killed. For the meantime. But I won't go into that.  
So, after that incident we had a couple of years of absolute bliss. Busy years, granted, but years with friends and love." Jack's face softened as he remembered, "who shall I focus first on, Gwen?

Gwen glanced at him and, without a second thought, replied, "Tosh."  
A tear slipped down her cheek, "and Owen. Together."

"Tosh," whispered Jack, "the brilliant Toshiko Sato.   
Too clever for anyone to realise, too shy and quiet for herself to realise. In Torchwood, she blossomed. We all loved Tosh, even though some of us didn't quite realise her value until we lost her. It was always her voice you would hear reassuring you over the comms, always her searching the computers for much needed information. Toshiko was always there.  
And Owen. An amazing man. Sad though. So sad. Maybe as lonely as Tosh. Our best doctor. The best we will ever have. He died twice in his lifetime. Owen was the man who did autopsies, dissected people, looked for causes of deaths, went out and did lots of field work too. Owen Harper was someone who'd always patch you up when you needed it. To most, he came across as an arrogant, unpleasant but brilliant man. To Torchwood, he was just a brilliant man. He was hilarious, sarcastic and a little lonely.   
But anyway, let me talk to you about the bravest thing they ever did. Toshiko. Yes, she was brave in everything she did, or said, but her final moments were her finest.   
She was shot in the chest.   
She was instructing Owen on the radioactive material they were dealing with over their comms. She was shot in the chest and her communication was kicked away from her. Down the stairs.  
Tosh knew that to save the world and Owen, she had to get to the communication device.  
She rolled down the stairs with a bullet wound in her chest, leaving a trail of blood behind her.  
Tosh grabbed the communication device and spoke to Owen through it, telling him what to do.  
"Tosh, are you okay?" He asked, "you're not hurt are you?"  
"No I'm, fine," she replied, "just my arm."  
She'd already broken her arm. She loaded up an industrial-strength painkiller and stabbed it into her leg. Then, bleeding slowly out, she instructed Owen on what to do.  
Then there was a surge in the power. A power spike. The only way to solve the problem and not to burn the Earth up with radiation poisoning was to direct it to where Owen was.  
All he had to do was remember to get out.   
Owen directed the power and was all set. And then the door closed.  
He was trapped.  
Owen screamed. He said he was going to scream his way to oblivion.  
Until Tosh whispered "please, stop."  
"WHY?!" Was the answer  
Toshiko's reply was so painful...  
"Because you're breaking my heart."  
And the bravest thing Owen ever said: "I'm sorry..."" 

Tears were flowing freely down Jack's face now, and down Gwen's. Esther herself was wreck just hearing it.

"Finally, Owen admitted to Tosh that they could have been great together. But... they must have 'missed each other' and that he was sorry. It was 'his fault'.  
Tosh whispered, 'I'm sorry too.'  
And Owen asked her how he would die. Finally, Tosh replied that his body would slowly decompose as he watched.  
When he died his last words were, 'it's okay. Really Tosh, it's okay... oh God..."  
And then there was silence on the end of Tosh's comm.   
Then we found her. And when she lay in myself and Gwen's arms, she smiled. She smiled."

Gwen was crying openly, "oh Tosh," she whispered.

"Afterwards, we found a message from her. She said thank you to everyone.  
'And Owen... you never knew... I love you.  
All of you.  
And... I hope I did good.'  
And it'll be those last words that will stay with me forever because she did so much better than just 'good.'  
So much better than that."

Rex's vision was blurring.  
Jack looked at Gwen.   
"Do you think you can bear it?" She asked.  
Jack paused for a moment.  
"No," he whispered, "no I don't think I can. Not Ianto. I can't."  
"Do you want me to talk or do you just want to leave it?"  
Jack opened his mouth but the closed it.  
"No, I'll talk. His final moments. His final words. I've never told anyone before."  
Esther glanced at Jack through her tears, "you don't have to, Jack."  
Jack smiled slightly at her, it was so tempting to refuse to talk. To back down. But he felt that he had to tell someone Ianto's last words.  
"I'll tell you his last words. I have to tell someone."  
Gwen nodded. She understood.  
"There was a poisonous gas in the air, released by an alien.  
Ianto was with me. He'd breathed in the gas.  
He fell. Before he could hit the floor, I caught him and we both sank to the ground.  
He looked at me and he whispered, "I love you..."  
"Don't," I replied  
"Hey, it was good, yeah?" He asked me. "Yeah."  
"Don't forget me."  
"Never could."  
"In a thousand years time.... you won't remember me..."  
"Yes I will, I promise, I will."  
And then he died in my arms."

Tears streamed down Jack's face. Gwen had her head in her hands as she sobbed for her friends.  
Salty tracks paved roads down Esther's cheeks, and Rex sat there so shocked and saddened that he could hardly breathe.

"And that," whispered Jack, "is why I am in charge here."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed it! :)  
> Kudos and comments would be really appreciated xox


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